Rare
Photos of Dr. Bookspan's Early Work

Plus,
"The Years I Thought I'd Never Mention Again" - Paralyzed After
the Accidents

I am
private and spent a career ducking photos and keeping personal information
out of print.
I am experimenting with a few images to share. This page may stay or not.

---------------

After
Devin Leary read about my accident (on this page, toward the bottom), he
wrote after sustaining major injuries from a motor vehicle accident:

"I
found your web page 'Rare Photos' when I was all bandaged up, stuck at home
moping around. If I remember correctly, I read it from start to finish,
and afterwards, got up off my lazy butt and went for a walk. It was sometime
around then that I made a positive decision to start being more active and
actively working towards getting my mind and body 'back' and ready to conquer
the world again.
I've been reading your Healthy Martial Arts book
as well and been making an effort to incorporate it to my daily life."

I was the first to put
fitness on cruise ships. I had worked for years trying to convince dozens
of cruise lines that people would exercise on vacation. I was already out
of my first grad school program in physiology (returned for more, later).
I was presenting my lab research studies on healthier fitness at sports
medicine conferences, often without the funds to pay for both the conference
fees and lodging. At one ACSM conference, I secretly slept in the bathroom
of the conference center just to be able to attend. Once I hitchhiked to
get to a conference. No one wanted healthy exercise programs - not the military,
university, gyms, or cruises. I went back to guiding SCUBA trips in the
Caribbean. Then in the early 1980s, one cruise line agreed to start my fitness
program. I took a bathing suit and scuba gear and left for the sea.

Getting
ready to teach Parcours (Parkour, Free Running) starting with a run on the
bulwarks and rails

Teaching Ballet
It was also the fledgling beginnings of the first aerobics classes. I taught
aerobics in classic 80s style in leg warmers and leotards. I was called
their "Vitality Instructor."

In ballet
and other dance, legs are turned out for style, even though it is less stretch.
This stretch mistake carried over into "fitness" from people who
didn't know it was only style and tradition, not stretch. I taught stretch
with parallel feet, upsetting "fitness" people.

We wore
these uniforms on "Mexican Night." Mine was too big. Occasionally
it would fall suddenly. One day it dropped to the floor and a passenger
raised a camera to catch the view. I pulled it in front of me and pretended
it was all part of the costume. New arrangement, above right.

Teaching
snorkeling before leading the group out to the reefs.
I took passengers by boat to a sheltered cove where I'd teach them how to
snorkel, then lead their trip and cook them lunch on the beach.

Western night.
Cruise staff dressed as saloon dance hall girls. I wore jeans and aces and
did a trick whip show.
At the time, I had no idea why it was so popular.

Part
of my job was to be like popular people (of that era) to please the passengers.
At left I am trying to pay respectful tribute to Farrah Faucet. At right
is the beach of the movie "10" - Las Hadas. I was told
to wear a Bo Derek bathing suit and prance on the beach, in addition to
teaching scuba, windsurfing, water exercise, and aerobics classes.
The ship is in the background, and a lone hotel or two. I think there are
many now.

The standard
required bent knee pose

Evaluation
from passengers - nice words at left and lower right

From
my scrapbook of letters from passengers.

Living
in Mexico

I never
wanted to leave the cruise ship.

I found
myself put ashore suddenly for not being cozy enough with the Director.
You really have to read the fine print in your contract.

I worked
day and night with locals on the southwestern Mexican coast to build a gym.

I hammered,
sawed, laid bricks, painted, translated, wrote class routines, and learned
that after impressive consequences from drinking from a water supply hose
in Mexico, I was able to live in rustic conditions and drink anything, even
from the river, although I don't recommend it now.

While
building the gym, I worked until my Spanish improved enough to be appointed
Professor at a college, photo on the Adventure page.
I taught anatomy and physiology completely in Spanish. Students often asked
me American song lyrics, and when I translated popular songs of the 80s with
lyrics like "...hurts so good" and "...the funk
of 40,000 years" they thought I couldn't speak English. There was
no one for miles around that spoke English so I could prove that I did. I
loved working there.

With
my friend outside a shop in my new home

The
years I never thought I'd mention again

I was paralyzed in
a military accident. They didn't know me anymore after that. No compensation
or help. My face and body were disfigured (photo above shows the sunglasses
I usually wore to help hide the damaged face). My body and legs first
swelled grotesquely, then shrank and twisted into claws, then turned to
spaghetti. I didn't want photos or anyone to know.

Every doctor and "friend"
and family member said I was an unreasonable baby to not accept I'd never
walk. They prevented me from trying, saying it was dangerous and I had
no right to be unhappy about it. They tried to force me to have both legs
cut off. They said bed rest was the only cure for injury and I was wrong
to think any movement was healthy. That was the belief back then and I
was a lone voice in getting injured people moving. They threatened to
put me in restraints and sedation if I tried to exercise or move.

I paid physical therapy
out of pocket but they all said I had to live with pain and lose my legs
too and I'd never be better. Even a breeze blowing on my legs would set
off neural pain so serious I'd shriek in pain for hours. The hospital
and doctors left me that way many months and said there was no other way.
I worked years until I was able to push myself up, so I threw a party
(where the photo above was taken).

I used my own methods to rehab and forced myself to walk.

In the photos above,
I went back to the pool, swallowed my pride about my shrunken legs and
ruined body, and hit the laps at a pool where I used to work, although
no one would hire me anymore. I had been an Olympic swimming hopeful,
and here I could only swish around - barely. Painfully.

The only photos
I'd allow were carefully posed so that I'd look like I could stand or
do anything, although I could not. I'd smile to prove all was fine when
nothing was fine.

I destroyed my photos,
sports trophies, medals (as much as I was able to move at all). It only
added pain to see the life I had worked so hard for, all gone. Everyone
said I had to accept I'd never be me again.

A month after being
able to walk again, I was a passenger in a 4-car fiery smash when a
police vehicle in pursuit of a stolen car smashed us. Paralyzed again,
worse this time, from a broken neck, broken knees (and almost everything
else torn off). They had sovereign immunity so I was not compensated
for rehab or even food. I could not get work. Once again I was on my
own.

I couldn't get work
anywhere. It was before disability laws. I could understand the look
of the people staring at me from the other side of the interview table;
I looked bad. I went from applying for senior scientist work, to junior,
then tech positions. Although years earlier I had already completed
a 2 year, 100 hour a week post-doc, I went all the way back to apply
for (beg for) any post doc position, no matter how awful. They refused
to hire, then said they couldn't because I hadn't published lab research
in the previous year, and "Publish or Perish." Years passed
this way.

I did my own rehab.
I couldn't bear the thought of a wheelchair or for anyone to see me.
As soon I could conceal my disfigurement enough that I didn't frighten
horses in the street, I went back to martial arts. I'd arrive at school
an hour early so no one could see me try to get up the stairs on all
fours. In training matches, my opponents knew to just go for my ruined
legs, still cased in metal bracing, for an easy win. I refused to put
my black belt on again until I earned it from the bottom level back
up a second time.

Why
am I telling any of this now?

I never used to
mention anything. My classes and work were for the students, not to
talk about myself. Students would complain how hard my classes were
and that they didn't want to work for anything. The first time I mentioned
I had spent years unable to walk, they said they were glad I told them.
They said before I told them, they didn't like me. They thought I couldn't
understand a hard life. I took that as a compliment, that anyone could
look at me, when I still see my mangled former self struggling, they
see someone untouched by any scar.

If
I had died every time a doctor insisted I would die if I didn't do as
they say, I'd be dead a lot.

I
rehabbed myself and walked and am still creating world programs of health
and better ways. Come join the fun.